Schools: Employment Agencies

Mr. Drew:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many individuals teaching or managing in schools are paid through personal service companies (IR35), broken down by local authority; and what guidance his Department issues to local authorities on this matter. [146649]

The decision whether to employ teachers and other school staff through personal service companies is a matter for individual schools or local authorities. Guidance is issued by the department with respect to safeguarding children and safer recruitment in education including through personal service companies. This guidance can be available in PDF format at the following URL:

Schools: Religion

Sarah Teather:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what religious groups his Department has corresponded with in the past 12 months over possible sponsorship of (a) an academy and (b) a trust school. [146809]

Jim Knight:
Officials are in regular contact with the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church who are actively involved in the Academies programme. Discussions have also taken place about potential Academy and/or Trust School projects with the Eastern Orthodox Church and a number of organisations who have a religious ethos, including Oasis, the United Learning Trust and the Multi Faith Secondary School Trust and the Salvation Army.

The Focus Learning Trust has made a number of representations to Government concerning the establishment of an Academy or a Trust school in which the FLT would have a role. There are no current proposals to establish any such Academy or Trust school.

Teachers

Mr. Graham Stuart:
To ask the Secretary of State for children, Schools and Families how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school teaching posts were removed by each local education authority area in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [146664]

Jim Knight:
The information is not available in the format requested.

Provisional figures show that between 1997 and 2007 there was an increase of 5,300 full-time equivalent number of teachers employed in local authority 4 July 2007 : Column 1099W
maintained nursery and primary schools and 27,300 in local authority maintained secondary schools in England.

The source of information is the DFES annual survey of teachers in service and teacher vacancies, 618G.

Teachers: Science

Mr. Boris Johnson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) physics, 4 July 2007 : Column 1100W (b) chemistry, (c) biology and (d) biochemistry graduates began teacher training in each of the last 10 years, broken down by class of degree. [146126]

Jim Knight [holding answer 28 June 2007]: The breakdown of Science courses into the individual specialisms is not available. The following table shows the number of entrants to Initial Teacher Training (ITT) mainstream Post Graduate (PG) science courses with a first UK degree in science or in a science-related subject by the classification of their first degree between 1998/99 and 2004/05.

Degree classification

Total

1st

2:1

2:2

3

Pass

Class not known or undefined

1998/99

1,620

120

630

600

150

90

30

1999/2000

1,680

140

660

630

150

70

40

2000/01

1,790

150

710

650

160

90

30

2001/02

1,880

150

780

670

160

90

40

2002/03

1,940

180

760

730

160

100

20

2003/04

2,220

220

930

780

170

80

30

2004/05

2,100

220

900

720

180

70

10

Notes:
1. Includes trainees from Universities and other Higher Education (HE) institutions, School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) and Open Universities (OU), but exclude Employment Based Routes (EBR).
2. Numbers are individually rounded to the nearest 10, therefore may not sum.
3. Figures include those entering ITT courses for secondary science and key stage 2/3 science.
4. UK first degree of science includes trainees with degrees in biology, chemistry and physics.
5. UK first degree of science related subject includes trainees with a degree which has an element of science, for example engineering.
6. Prior to 1998/99 data are not in a consistent format. Source:
TDA performance profiles

Teachers: Standards

David Howarth:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effect on the educational attainments of pupils of being taught by unqualified teachers. [147453]

Jim Knight:
No such assessment has been made.

Teachers: Training

Mr. Greg Knight:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what training in teaching reading is provided to student teachers at university. [147212]

Jim Knight [holding answer 3 July 2007]: The standards for qualified teacher status require that all trainee teachers have a secure knowledge and understanding of their subjects and curriculum areas. They are also required to demonstrate that they are able to put into practice in their teaching the relevant aspects of the National Strategies. In the case of all primary teachers, this means that they will receive training in the teaching of reading. This training will include phonics approaches, such as the teaching of high quality systematic phonic work, in accordance with the recommendations of the Rose Review. The standards for the award of qualified teacher status have recently been revised and strengthened in these areas.

Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many teachers in the maintained sector have been trained by the Applied Scholastics programme; [147454]

(2) what assessment his Department has made of the Applied Scholastics programme for (a) teachers and (b) pupils. [147455]

Jim Knight:
The Department does not have information relating to how many teachers have been trained by the Applied Scholastic programme and has made no assessment of the Applied Scholastics programme for either teachers or for pupils.

Teachers: Working hours

Sarah Teather:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate his Department has made of the hours an average (a) primary and (b) secondary school teacher spends on planning, preparation, assessment and other administration in each seven day period; and if he will make a statement. [147546]

Jim Knight:
Information on the hours and working patterns of teachers is collected via the Teachers Workloads Diary Survey that is published by the Office of Manpower Economics. The most recent results relate to a single week in March 2006. The survey showed that on average full-time classroom teachers in primary schools spent 14.2 hours on Lesson planning/Marking(1) and 5.0 hours on General Admin(2). Full-time classroom teachers in secondary schools spent 14.8 hours on Lesson planning /Marking(1) and 3.0 hours on General Admin(2).

4 July 2007 : Column 1101W

We expect that the results of the 2007 survey will be published in the next couple of months.

Teaching Methods

Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what contact his Department has had with Applied Scholastics since 1997. [147190]

Jim Knight:
The information requested can be supplied only at disproportionate cost.

Health

Care Homes

Andrew George:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of (a) state funded and (b) privately funded care home places in (i) Cornwall and (ii) England per head of population. [146644]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 29 June 2007]: Neither the Department nor the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) collects data on population numbers. Information on the number of care and nursing homes and registered places is collected by CSCI as part of its registration and inspection activities.

The Office for National Statistics has supplied data on numbers of adults aged 18 and over in England and the Cornwall county council area. Numbers of care and nursing home places, in England and Cornwall as percentages of the numbers of adults aged 18 and over are shown in the table.

Care home places are not registered as state or privately funded; care is funded in a variety of ways. Depending on their circumstances, residents may fund their own care, or be partly or wholly supported by councils or the national health service, or organisations such as charities and previous employers. As a result, the same place may, at different times, be state or privately funded depending on the circumstances of the resident occupying it.

Area

Places( 1)

Number of adults aged 18 and over( 2)

Number of places as a percentage of adults aged 18 and over( 3)

England

440,038

39,383,400

1.12

Cornwall

5,480

411,500

1.33

(1) Numbers include residential homes for older people and for younger adults (aged 18-64).(2) Figures rounded to the nearest 100. These data are Crown copyright.(3) Percentages rounded to two decimal places. Sources;(1) CSCI report, The State of Social Care in England 2005-06.(2) Office for National Statistics mid-2005 population estimates (latest available figures).

4 July 2007 : Column 1102W

Care Homes: Cornwall

Andrew George:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many extra care housing places there are (a) taken up and (b) available in Cornwall. [146643]

Dental Services: Milton Keynes

Mr. Lancaster:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what spare capacity expressed in patient numbers is available for (a) under 18, (b) over 18 fee paying and (c) over 18 charge exempt people who want to register with an NHS dentist in Milton Keynes, broken down by dental practice. [146707]

Ann Keen [holding answer 29 June 2007]:Information is not available in the format requested. Since April 2006 patients have no longer been required to register with a particular dentist.

Information is held centrally on the number of patients broken down by adults and children who received care or treatment from a national health service dentist in the most recent 14 months. As at 31 March 2007 53.8 per cent. of patients in Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust had seen an NHS dentist at least once in the previous 24 months, for adults this was 47.0 per cent. and for children this was 74.6 per cent.

Departments: Older Workers

David Simpson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of staff in her Department were over 60 years of age in each of the last three years. [145682]

Mr. Ivan Lewis:
The information is shown in the following table.

Date

Percentage of staff over 60

31 March 2005

1.0

31 March 2006

1.4

31 March 2007

1.7

David Simpson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people aged (a) over 55 years of age and (b) over 60 years of age have been recruited by her Department in each of the last three years; and what percentage in each case this is of the number of new recruits in each year. [145704]